SPORTS OF THE TIMES; University Sells Itself During Playoffs

By WILLIAM C. RHODEN

Published: January 17, 2009

This was what puzzled me two and a half years ago when I stepped inside the fabulous University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.

Was the university a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association or the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics? Did it play in Division I, II or III?

Did it have a nickname?

William Pepicello, the university's president, has heard all the questions. ''Probably the major response is, 'We thought you people were an online university,' '' he said by phone on Thursday. '' 'If you're an online university, you can't possibly have a football team, so what are you doing here?' ''

University of Phoenix Stadium, which seats 63,400 but is expandable to 73,000, would be the envy of any college football team in America: Florida, Southern California, Oklahoma. What high school recruit wouldn't want to play there?

But the University of Phoenix has no sports program and no traditional campus to speak of. Yet it has achieved extraordinary exposure for its online degree programs because of a decision in 2006 to buy the naming rights for the Arizona Cardinals' new stadium for about $154 million over 20 years.

Last year the Giants won a dramatic Super Bowl in the stadium. The 2007 Bowl Championship Series title game, between Florida and Ohio State, was held there. The surprising Cardinals call it home, and on Sunday they will host the Philadelphia Eagles in the National Football Conference championship game.

''It's a great source of pride, clearly this year, and especially now, to hear people talk about University of Phoenix Stadium,'' Pepicello said. ''This run at the end of the season obviously has made our business deal with the Cardinals very sweet.''

The University of Phoenix, a for-profit educational institution, has turned the traditional relationship between athletics and higher education on its head, reducing it to its commercially exploitive essence.

High-profile sports teams are routinely used to carry the flag for universities, which contend that the teams build campus morale, foster school spirit, attract donors and increase enrollment.

Starting in 2006, the University of Phoenix agreed to pay $7.7 million a year over 20 years for naming rights to the stadium.

''That's not a cheap ticket,'' Pepicello said. ''But it's very important, we thought, as a long-term investment in the Phoenix community. We wanted to let people know that we are part of the community, dedicated to it, and we are here to stay. Nationally, it's a way to reinforce the message of the university in all the communities where we operate.''

Pepicello said that while the deal was being negotiated, there were fierce discussions within the university about buying the naming rights. ''One of the things we agreed on was that football is, for better or worse, America's sport right now,'' he said. ''We like to think of ourselves as America's university.''

The University of Phoenix has more than 300,000 students enrolled worldwide and campus locations in 39 states where they can take classes, though, as Pepicello pointed out: ''There is not the traditional home campus. What we discovered is that as the stadium gets noticed and gets publicity, there are people all across the country who say, 'Wow, I go to that university,' or 'My brother or my sister goes there.' ''

Critics of big-time college sports dispute claims that winning teams attract students. Pepicello said incoming students were being asked if the university's partnership with the Cardinals mattered to them. ''We hope that the answer to that is yes,'' he said. ''We hope that over time we'll be able to quantify that.''

For all the positive attention, the university continues to deal with the stigma that an online education is inferior to the more traditional campus experience.

''Across the country, we have lots of people who are C.E.O.'s or C.F.O.'s who have graduated from the University of Phoenix,'' he said. Some Arizona professional athletes, including members of the Diamondbacks, the Suns and the Cardinals, are enrolled. The N.B.A. star Shaquille O'Neal and the W.N.B.A. star Lisa Leslie earned M.B.A.'s from the university.

''We work with Major League Baseball, we work with hockey, the N.B.A., and we have scholarship programs with all of those folks,'' Pepicello said. ''I'm amazed and gratified at some of the young players -- even in their early to mid-20s -- who realize that they need to come back and finish their education.''

The university has received criticism and scrutiny for everything from its low graduation rates to the way it obtains federal student aid. Pepicello said the university's mission is to offer access to education that can help lift its students into the middle class.

''There's still some skepticism of online education,'' he said. ''We've made great progress in the last 10 years as far as it being accepted. You see places like M.I.T., Harvard, Columbia having a significant online presence.''

True. But they don't have a great football stadium in the desert.

PHOTO: The decision to buy the naming rights to the Arizona Cardinals' stadium has increased the profile of the University of Phoenix.(PHOTOGRAPH BY JEFF GROSS/GETTY IMAGES)